He’s one of the highest-paid public officials in the Inland Valley, and he just got a raise.

James Hammond already was paid $261,206 as superintendent of the Ontario-Montclair School District, and that figure doesn’t count perks — more on those in a moment — that by some measures put him above a half-million dollars in compensation per year.

Noticing that the agenda for last week’s school board meeting had Hammond being evaluated and an amendment to his contract up for approval, I decided to attend.

(It was the evening of July 3 and friends were going to the X-Men movie. Me, I felt obligated to attend a school board meeting. The things I do for you people!)

Evidently the evaluation, in closed session, was positive, because Hammond’s contract, set to end in 2017, was extended one year to 2018. And he got a 5 percent pay boost, which he essentially awarded himself.

Not that it was clear he got 5 percent. Just before the meeting began, the district’s human resources director, Guy Roubian, told me Hammond would get what certificated employees (i.e., teachers) got, and that they got 1.15 percent. “So he’s getting 1.15 percent?” I asked. Roubian demurred, saying I should ask Hammond.

After the meeting, I chatted with Elvia Rivas, the board president. She was friendly, but she gave me the distinct impression that Hammond didn’t get a raise and that she didn’t know what I was talking about.

I told her that according to a staff report, Hammond had waived the annual cost of living increase, which I was told was under 2 percent, to take the increase given to teachers. She said we should ask Hammond, who was standing nearby.

“I got 5 percent,” Hammond said.

Give the man this, he can provide a direct answer.

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I asked how the raise came about. Hammond explained the contract provision. In Gov. Jerry Brown’s pension reform pact of 2012, automatic percentage salary increases are no longer allowed in executive contracts, Hammond said. But executives can “piggyback” onto increases other groups get.

Hammond’s contract says that “in his sole discretion” he can waive an inflation increase and accept “the salary increase given to the employee group,” which can be whichever group he chooses, or “a salary increase equivalent to the general benefit increase granted an employee group.”

This year, raises were 2 percent for management, 3 percent for classified employees and 5 percent for teachers. Under his contract, Hammond could decide whether he wanted a 2, 3 or 5 percent raise.

It won’t surprise you to learn he went with 5 percent.

This is so much better than the old system, isn’t it?

Actually, the “general benefit increase” for all groups was 5 percent, Hammond said, so he’s not specifically taking what teachers got.

Speaking of what teachers got, in one sense they’re getting only 1.15 percent. The other 3.85 percent compensates them because their workday will lengthen by 15 minutes. (To my knowledge, no one is asking Hammond to clock out 15 minutes later.)

Hammond, 43, and a native of Whittier, was hired in 2010 from Northern California’s Davis Unified. Besides his salary, he gets 25 days of vacation and 50 days of leave, $750 monthly as an auto allowance, lifetime health care for his family, a $100,000 home loan and not one but two retirement investment funds.

KFI-AM did three stories in April on Hammond’s pay and perks, compensation that reporter David Cruz pegged at $554,000 annually.

Hammond said that’s inflated. His taxable income is $315,000, his gross before taxes is $370,000 and his total compensation, including deferred compensation and installment payments on buying five years of retirement credit, adds up to $511,000.

With his 5 percent raise, effective July 1 and amounting to an extra $13,000 per year, Hammond’s salary is now $274,266.

Rather than his mother, I asked the board president. Rivas said Hammond is doing a great job, that Bon View School is the county’s first public elementary school to become an International Baccalaureate School, that CSU Bakersfield will be part of the Promise Scholars program that ensures college access and that DeAnza Middle School has made “a complete turnaround.”

“He’s so invested here. His daughters are in the district. He’s not going anywhere,” Rivas said.

(If he were, the auto allowance would help.)

The district, with 22,800 students and 32 schools in Ontario, Montclair and portions of Upland and unincorporated territory, is the third-largest elementary school district in California. Today, Rivas said, “it’s really something to be proud of.”

To clarify our earlier conversation, I asked Rivas, “So you didn’t know he was getting a 5 percent raise?”

“I just didn’t want to give you the wrong number,” she replied. “A lot of different numbers were talked about in closed session for different employee groups.”

During the open meeting, board member Sam Crowe said without elaboration that two board members will, referring to Hammond, “look at his contract and suggest modifications.”

I asked Rivas what that meant. “We want to make sure everything is correct,” she said. Was Hammond requesting changes? “He’s not asking for anything now,” she said.

Hammond said he did request a change. His leave time grows by five days per year, and he thinks there should be a limit on how many days he will be paid for at whatever point he leaves or retires.

“I initiated a conversation about my sick leave and putting some kind of cap on it relating to my payout, I’m interested in making an offer to the board,” Hammond said, “to mitigate some kind of exorbitant payout.”

Nice of him to look out for the district. Of course, he can afford to be generous.